Change Requires INNOVATION

Recently I had an opportunity to watch master motivational speaker Tony Robbins give a short talk. The thing that caught my attention was when he said, "If you don't like something, change it! Don't like your weight? Change it! Don't like your job? Change it!…" Brilliant advice, of course, he's right, and as anyone who has ever tried to make or break a habit knows, lasting change is not so easy. 

But, as the old saying goes, if you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten. Change requires you to challenge your thinking, try new methods, and do things differently. Creating effective, lasting…

The first step in the AVT INNOVATION process is defining the problem you want to solve. One way to clarify a problem you're trying to solve is to define why you want to make the change. The leaders at WW (formerly Weight Watchers) have a saying, "Keep your why close by." Knowing why you want to make a change has two benefits, first knowing your why helps crystalize the problem you're trying to solve, and second, it provides an anchor to keep you on track when the going gets tough.

Borrowing a tool from the world of process improvement, asking 5 WHYS can expand your thinking about the change you want to make and why you want to make it. Once you know why, it's much easier to innovate your life, work, or business to create effective change.

Want to take a deep dive into your WHYS?

 Grab a copy of the free template and play along.

Step 1: Name the change - write down the change you want to make. It could be anything. Some examples might be losing 25 pounds, changing jobs, reading more, spending less time on social media, moving more, getting more sleep, keeping a journal, learning to paint or dance, or sing. The list is endless, but narrow your focus and pick just ONE thing for now. Then, once you get the hang of innovating to create change, you can choose the next thing on your list or work on a bigger problem, product, process, or service.

Step 2: WHY #1 - ask yourself why you want to make this change, then write down the first thought that pops into your head. (Bonus points for using color or hierarchy to show relationship and add meaning and adding an icon or two). Want to remove 25 pounds? Why is that? What do you hope to gain from doing that? Want to change jobs? Why? What do you want to be different? Want to spend less time on social media? Why is that important to you at this time? What benefit would you have from reducing your social media consumption?

Step 3: WHY #2 - ask yourself why you want that. If you're going to remove 25 pounds to have more energy, why is that? What would having more energy do for you? If you want to change jobs to shorten your commute, why is that? What would you gain from spending less time commuting? If you want to spend less time on social media to develop a new skill, how would you benefit from that?

Step 4: Rinse and repeat - keep going until you've answered WHY 5 times.

Step 5: Innovate - here's the payoff, look at your WHY's and plot an action plan. Start small and keep it simple. Ask yourself what the tiniest change you can make to get started is? Then schedule it, as entrepreneur and bestselling author Marie Forleo says, "If it's not scheduled, it's not real." 

Step 6: Iterate - after you've run your innovation for a few days or weeks take a few minutes to think about what you could tweak to improve your innovation. Could you change the time or day or duration? Perhaps you could add or remove something. Maybe you could substitute a different material, activity or process.

You'll find drilling deep into your WHYS gives you a broad range of ideas to innovate and helps you create change. For example, if your final, why looks something like this - I want to remove 25 lbs. to have more energy to play with my kids. Perhaps the problem you can innovate is incorporating more active playtime with your kids into your daily routine. 

The benefits of this approach are you don't have to wait until you remove the weight before you spend more time playing with your kids, the extra activity will help your weight loss journey, and kids are great for holding you accountable to ensure you get in more playtime. That's a WIN-WIN-WIN and much more fun and productive than trying to force yourself to stick to your diet now so you can play with your kids later. 

So if you don't like something, change it and start by asking 5 WHYs.

Want to learn more? 

PS: Download a free copy of the handout and try your hand a drawing a few characters. Use them to bring your visual thinking to life!